1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel antistatic agent soluble in organic solvent which can afford durable antistatic property, highly resistant to washing and dry cleaning, to hydrophobic fibers made of such polymers as polyester, polyacrylic, polyamide, polyvinylchloride, polyethylene and polypropylene polymers as well as fibrous structures such as cloth and knit fabrics made of such fibers, if applied to those fibers or fibrous structures in an organic solvent system.
Further, the present invention relates to hydrophobic fibers and fibrous structures having durable antistatic property and a method for producing such fibers and fibrous structures.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hydrophobic fibers and fibrous structures made of such fibers as mentioned above have excellent properties such as toughness and chemical resistance, but, as they are hydrophobic, they have great volume specific resistance and, therefore, they tend to produce a remarkable static electrification phenomenon even by a slight friction, thus causing various electrostatic faults.
Such faults will not only hinder a normal operation of the process steps for producing textile goods from textile fibers, for example, drawing and twisting, winding, warping, knitting and weaving, sewing, etc., but also cause lowering of product qualities or various troubles such as stains on products due to dust absorption and unpleasant feelings to human bodies.
There have been proposed various methods for preventing electrostatic faults of hydrophobic fibers and fibrous structures made of such fibers. There are known methods of adding a material having antistatic property to a fiber-forming polymer substance so as to make it copolymerize or blend with the polymer substance (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Publication No. 24143/1971) and methods of attaching a material having antistatic property on fibers or fibrous structures (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Publication No. 9849/1964, Japanese Patent Publication No. 22920/1971 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,729,577).
However, the former method has disadvantages such as the low dispersibility of the antistatic agent is liable to cause breaking of yarns and occurence of knotted yarns during melt spinning or lowering of qualities such as reduction of strength and elasticity. Further, due to thermal deterioration caused in melt spinning, dispersion into the coagulating bath in wet spinning, etc., only special kinds of antistatic agents can be used.
On the other hand, the latter method is a temporary antistatic treatment method, in which, since the antistatic agent is stripped off by washing, the antistatic effect is gradually lowered or completely lost, which has not only the disadvantages of hurting the feeling of fibrous structures, but also has a greater disadvantage of not having a durable antistatic effect.
Further, in conventional methods for antistatic treatment of fibrous structures, many of them use emulsions of antistatic agents added with emulsifiers, which lack in durability such as mentioned above. Therefore, they do not provide a durable antistatic effect. Further, among those conventional antistatic agents which have been utilized in an aqueous medium or system, those having relatively low HLB values could be utilized in a solvent system, because they are solvent soluble, but they have been insufficient with respect to their durabilities.
Recently, methods for treating hydrophobic fibrous structures by using an organic solvent as medium which is superior to a conventional method of treatment wherein water is used as medium have attracted attention because of their efficiency and economical advantage and also because of the fact that enviornmental pollution by waste water has posed a social problem. However, effective and durable antistatic agents which can be used in an organic solvent system cannot be found among conventional antistatic agents.